Cornish Pirates

The Cornish Pirates finally lifted the curse of Brickfields beating Plymouth Albion on Devon soil for the first time since Boxing Day 2005 with a courageous performance to keep their cup hopes alive.

Scott Franklin’s try midway through the second half proved crucial as the Pirates notched ten unanswered points in the second half to claim victory.

Match reportwww.cornish-pirates.com/match_reports

Exeter Chiefs could have handed the Pirates a massive qualification boost by beating Leinster at Sandy Park but went down 22-10 in the face of a dominant second half display from the European champions.

The home side made a raft of changes to their starting line-up with coach Rob Baxter assessing his options ahead of the play-offs but struggled against the class of their opponents, and in particular fly-half Shaun Berne.

Baxter told the Western Morning News after the game, There were some good individual performances out there, we've got another batch of players who are pretty injury-free again and another batch of players who are getting some game time under their belt.

"Things are very positive for us. We've got what we wanted out of the game other than the win and I think we're ready to move forward."

Match report www.thisiswesternmorningnews.co.uk

At Rodney Parade Newport warmed up for their trip to Dublin next month by beating Gael Force 27-5 on Friday night.

The Welsh Premiership side ran in four tries claiming a winning bonus point early in the second half but were made to fight all the way by determined opponents.

Match report www.southwalesargus.co.uk

Munster took a massive step towards qualification for the semi-finals by comfortably beating a Nottingham second string 18-3 in Waterford.

Poor discipline cost the Meadow Lane outfit dearly as home fly-half Declan Cusack put the visitors to the sword with six penalties in front of a crowd of 3,500.

Director of rugby Glenn Delaney reflected afterwards, The 18-3 scoreline, which was all kicked penalties, was pretty boring especially for the big crowd who had obviously come to watch a flowing game.

"We tried to go down fighting, and I think we did that. It's quite a difficult day at the office when the game never gets going."

Match report www.thisisnottingham.co.uk

Bristol took the opportunity to rest several key players as they took on Coventry at the Memorial Stadium but still had far too much firepower for the Midlanders as they triumphed 40-15.

The home side ran in six tries in total as they cut loose during the second half. Academy manager Liam Middleton was delighted with the performances of his youngsters and told the Evening Post, “Playing in a game like this is a big step up for the guys, there's no question about that.

"We try to make sure the focus is on doing the basic skills well and ensuring that they're physically ready for championship rugby. They have the talent, so it's a question of can they cope with the intensity?

Story www.thisisbristol.co.uk

Coventry boss Phil Maynard commented, “I thought we were about there with our best combination, but the lads who stepped in did really well and there were some very good performances .”

Story www.coventrytelegraph.net

In Sunday`s match at Goldenacre Neath and Heriots shared nine tries with the Welsh side running out winners by 39-21.

Match report www.neathrugby.co.uk

London Welsh stole the initiative from Ulster in Pool C as the Exiles disposed of Bedford at Old Deer Park whilst the Irish side slipped up at Parc y Scarlets against Llanelli.

Flanker Aaron Shingler raced home for an 80 th minute try converted by Dan Newton to steal a 21-21 draw on Friday night. It was tough on Ulster who had fought back from 14-6 down at the interval with two quick tries from Paul Marshall and Tomoci Nagusa.

Match report www.llanellirugby.com

Bedford`s chances of progressing in the competition ended against a full strength Welsh side as they went down 26-13 but prop Marco Cecere said that the team could take a lot from their performance.

He told Bedfordshire on Sunday, "Mike Rayer and Martin Hynes had been telling us all week that we needed to put our hands up and be counted and I think a lot of lads did that.

"It was especially pleasing as this was a team that had only really had two training sessions together this week and to look that good was a good effort. On paper that's not our strongest side but no one on the pitch would look out of place in the jersey next weekend."

Match report www.bedfordshire-news.co.uk

Friday’s fixture between Aberavon and Moseley was called off because of an unfit pitch.

Doncaster Knights` win at home to Cardiff on Sunday has left Pool D wide open as the Welsh side slipped from top spot down to fourth as they lost 34-10 at Castle Park.

On an afternoon when things went right on the field of play for once for the Yorkshire side they overturned a three point half time deficit running in three second half tries.

The Knights survived the first half sin-binning of Bryn Griffiths and Ngalu Tau and had former Pirates scrum-half Nicky Griffiths to thank for a late cameo in which he contributed a brace of tries.

Match report www.doncasterfreepress.co.uk

Rotherham Titans climbed up to second in the group with a morale boosting 33-23 win over Pontypridd at Clifton Lane.

The Titans have played one game more than the Knights but with the relegation play-offs in the Championship looming can be satisfied with this gutsy display against a committed Welsh Premiership outfit.

They now face a midweek Championship match against Nottingham today (Tuesday) at Clifton Lane (3.30pm).

In the other Pool D fixture Ayr thumped the hapless Bees 49-14 at Millbrae. The home side led 37-0 at the break before the Bees rallied with late tries from Tom Foden and Anthony Elliott.

However Bees assistant coach Eugene Martin was happy with his team. He told the Birmingham Mail, “We are getting towards the end of our mini pre-season. And some players, like hooker Dale Gardner, centre Grant Anderson and lock Gerry Hill, are stepping up to the mark. We’re getting nearer a settled 22 players who we feel can take us on.”

Match report www.birminghammail.net